Basketball Photography

Hello there!

 

I have been shooting sports for work purposes since last season.

Recently, I started shooting high school basketball games. I dont

have the best experience in this area. I dont know much about flash

photography and I am obviously not very good at it. I was wondering

what other sports photographers use to shoot this sport.

 

The only problem is, I only have limited equiptment to utilize since

none of it is really mine, it is the studio I work for's equiptment.

 

Im shooting with a Nikon D70. I've been using a 35-70mm lens but I

also have a 70-210mm at my use as well. What I have for a flash is

just a real old Vivitar 283. Now remember, I know next to nothing

about flash photography. The last game I did I shot at 1/250, f:9

and the flash was set at the lowest possible setting. Also I set my

ISO at 400. The pictures either come out dark all over or the

players are bright white and the rest so dark it cant even be

lightened in Photoshop and look decent. I have tried a million

combinations and tried using no flash in certain situations. I

havent found any of my solutions to be very good ones. If anyone can

help me out and give me suggestions to reduce grain and expose my

subjects any better than I have explained I would appreciate it more

than anything! Thanks so much and Happy Holidays to all!

Was there something preventing you from checking your pics after shooting them? Did you shoot the whole game without checking the display even once?

 

Shooting sports requires a long lens and high ISO (at least inside, anyways). Since I figures basketball is an inside sport most of the time you'll be needing at least a 70-200/2.8 and iso800. Leave the flash at home coz it ain't going to be of any use at 10m+.

First of all, in most high school gyms, 400 ISO is way too slow. Set your ISO at at least 800--probably higher, in most cases. I can usually get away with about ISO 1000 before I start getting too much noise to be acceptable (for the circumstances) with my D70.

 

Then, F9 is way too small an aperture to use. You are going to have to go at 5.6, or even more open than that, preferably.

 

In most gyms, I have been able, shooting at ISO 1000, to go at about F4.5 and 1/250 of a second. If I set my flash at 1/16 power (an SB-26, which does not do TTL with the D70), everything out to about 20 feet is properly exposed by the flash, and I get in enough ambient light to look pretty natural.

 

I try to get midway between the basket and the sideline, and then focus on the block (on the free throw lane). That means the action occuring in that area, and along an arc out to the three point line, is all in focus. The D70's autofocus is way too slow for hoops action, so I zone focus--that is, I focus on an area, and when the action moves into that area, I shoot away.

 

Your 35-70 (I'm assuming it's the F2.8 version) is ideal for just this purpose. You may get away with using the longer zoom, but as Edward said, your flash is not going to give you coverage much farther than 30 feet or so, so you are not going to get much outside that range.

 

Those perfectly exposed shots obviously taken from the other end of the court (or farther) that you see in Sports Illustrated, etc., are courtesy of (1) long, fast glass; (2) million-dollar arena lighting; (3) big, honking, radio-triggered strobes mounted way up in the rafters. Doing high school hoops is a real challenge to your hand/eye coordination, comparatively.

 

Best of luck.

I never tried using a flash for basketball games. I usually meter around the court. I use a Canon 70-200 2.8 wide open on a 10D either 1600 or 3200...depending on the lighting in the gym. Like the other poster said, f/9 is too small and 400 isn't fast enough (for indoors).<div></div>

If you can shoot (literally) under the basket, you can use a 50mm f1.8 lens or a 85mm f1.8 lens for indoor basketball. The flash should be good to stop action (ISO 400 at 1/100th second) with a Nikon speedlight of the type your camera needs to work 'automatic-mode' with. Mixing the digital body with a manual flash might work, but you are going backwards in making the new technology work for you.

sorry about the image size. I made the width 511px instead of the height.

You have all been very helpful and I will try out some of this on Monday at the next game I shoot. I cant thank you enough!!!

 

Wouldnt shooting at such a high ISO produce lots of noise and grain? I have found that even at ISO 800? Maybe if I had better lighting conditions or something it wouldnt happen that way...Hmm...?

 

Bernard: WOw. I cant thank you more for the info you gave me. Thats exactly what I was looking for!

 

Edward: I did check my pictures many times but I couldnt find anything better than what I was at. I cant sit there all game testing things that dont work for me because of time restraints and the fact that I am doing this for work, not myself. I cant go back to the studio with a bunch of junk. At least I could fix what I had in Photoshop slightly. I just want to avoid having to do that so much... Thanks.

Using high ISO with digital will cause more noise. But even if you were using a high speed film, you still have the grain. Maybe you can try neat image or noise ninja to remove the noise.<div></div>

Joyce--

 

You are correct, that you will get a good bit of noise, at least compared to shooting at ISO 200. However, as Roland said, it will still likely be better--way better, in my experience--than what you would get if you shot film under the identical conditions.

 

 

You said you are shooting for a studio? Exactly what will the photos be used for? For newspaper publication, which is where most of my shots go, the noise is practically unnoticeable, and completely blows away the quality I used to get shooting black and white or color neg film and scanning it. For most print publication purposes, you shouldn't worry too much about the noise. And, as Roland also said, you can use Noise Ninja or some similar application to get rid of much of what you do get; or, read the recent photo.net article on using calibration to eliminate noise.

check these shots...

 

http://www.pbase.com/image/37053726

http://www.pbase.com/cameras/canon/eos_1ds_mark_ii

Ah...that pesky noise. Well, the pictures are mostly just used for high school yearbooks. So they will be printed fairly small.

 

I keep hearing about this Noise Ninja. Uhm...Im a little lost, never heard of it. Ill have to check that one out.

 

Thanks again for all your help!

I never used noise ninja. Neat Image has a free home version you can use (the one I use) which works fairly well (never compared it to anything else). The two images that I posted did not get any neat image applied.

Hey fellas!</p>

<p>A 50mm F1.8 is far more useful than you think! I shoot Division 1 basketball from the sidelines here in the UK, the Manchester Magic in particular.</p>

<p><img src="http://www.twilight-photography.co.uk/small_terrell.jpg"></p>

<p>This shot was taken on a Canon EOS-20D with a 50mm F1.8 mkII lens @ F1.8, 1/500 and ISO1600. The noise cleaned up very well in Noise Ninja, but the 20D does have significantly less noise than the D70 anyway.</p>

<p>This lens will have to do me until I can afford a 70-200 F2.8 </p>

<p><img src="http://www.twilight-photography.co.uk/gallery/Canon_EOS-20D/Sports/Magic_Games/08-01-05_London_Utd/ben_eaves2.jpg"></p>

<p> </p>

<p>Check out some more from the same game <a href="http://www.twilight-photography.co.uk/?content=gallery.php&dir=/Canon_EOS-20D/Sports/Magic_Games/08-01-05_London_Utd">here</a>

I'm going to agree with quite of few of the previous responses concerning aperture and shutter speed. Also, you can probably let your D70 make these decisions for you in most cases.

 

While basketball season is most likely over for you, there is alway sport. Baseball should be just around the corner! Regardless, we always hear quite a few people insist that telephotos are "it" for sports/action photography. I'm inclined to disagree. The folks who suggested shooting with a 50mm lens are on to something quite magical. Your 35-70 zoom should do just the trick. When you need to get close, rack it out to 70. When you want the feel of the game, pull it back in to 35. Don't worry about anything in the middle. Here's a link to a Mike Johnston article containing a football photograph taken by Garry Winogrand. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-02-12-09.shtml This speaks volumes about sports photography.

 

Good luck with your career. Based on what I've seen so far, you've got yourself a very bright future.